Want $1 Million in Retirement? Invest $10,000 in These 2 AI Stocks and Hold for 10 Years.

Turning $10,000 into $1 million over a decade requires a 100x return. That only happens when you invest in companies at the start of a structural shift that positions them to take advantage of a massive market that isn't currently being served well.

I spend a lot of time looking for these underserved markets and companies that have found new ways to take advantage. In some cases, it involves a current system that is clearly broken but widely accepted. Drug discovery is one of the best examples of this.

For decades, the drug discovery process has been painfully inefficient. Thousands of compounds are tested over years of research just to produce a single development candidate -- and that's before clinical trials even begin. On average, it takes about 2,500 compounds and more than four years just to find one drug worth a clinical trial.

Image source: Getty Images.

The industry tolerated this inefficiency because biology is complex, and progress historically depended on slow experimentation. But artificial intelligence (AI) is starting to rewrite that model. AI-driven platforms can analyze massive biological datasets, run experiments faster, and identify promising compounds with far fewer iterations. That shift is creating a new infrastructure layer in healthcare -- and these two companies are building it.

1. Recursion Pharmaceuticals

Drug discovery is broken. The industry average is 2,500 compounds synthesized over 42 months to find one development candidate. Recursion Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: RXRX) changed things up, and its average is 330 compounds synthesized in 17 months.

The company's drug development operating system integrates robotic wet labs, petabyte-scale biological datasets, and AI models. It built first-of-their-kind whole-genome CRISPR knockout maps in neuronal and microglial cells -- datasets so proprietary that Roche and Genentech have paid $213 million in fees for access. Sanofi has paid $134 million for five of its discovery programs.

Full-year 2025 revenue was $74.7 million. Recursion is pre-profit. But it has five clinical programs advancing, over $500 million in cumulative milestone payments from partners, and a cash runway into 2028. Its first clinical proof-of-concept, a 43% median reduction in polyp burden for Familial Adenomatous Polyposis (FAP) patients, validates that AI-discovered molecules deliver real outcomes in real patients. The platform generates over 100 million novel molecules annually, creating a perpetual pipeline that traditional pharma cannot replicate.

2. Tempus AI

Tempus AI (NASDAQ: TEM) built a giant library of clinical and molecular data and uses it to advance precision medicine with the help of AI, machine learning, and data analytics. It works primarily in oncology, diagnostics, and genomics, helping physicians make real-time, data-driven decisions and accelerating drug discovery for life sciences companies.

Trailing revenue reached $1.27 billion, growing roughly 30% annually. Diagnostics (genomic testing, MRD, companion diagnostics) feeds the data engine. Insights (data licensing, AI analytics, clinical trial matching) monetizes it at software-like margins.

Every patient tested generates additional data that improves the AI models, which attracts more pharma partnerships, which fund more testing. It would be next to impossible for a competitor to recreate this from scratch because the data comes from unique, real clinical relationships.

As it builds out its operations, Tempus is currently unprofitable, with a trailing net loss of $245 million. That's the risk. But analysts project nearly 30% annual revenue growth over the next three years, and consensus analyst price targets imply over 60% upside for the stock over the next year or so. The backlog exceeds $1.1 billion.

Get in early and hold on with these two stocks

Healthcare is a $4.7 trillion industry in the U.S. alone. If AI changes how drugs are discovered and diseases are diagnosed, these two companies sit at the center of the change. The next decade decides which platforms become permanent infrastructure for this evolving industry.

Both of these stocks offer an opportunity for investors to get in on the ground floor of a long-term growth story that could offer a great foundation for any retirement portfolio, including those with a $1 million goal.

Micah Zimmerman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Roche Holding AG. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.